The UN has called for a high-profile initiative to promote universal access to power such as electricity in developing countries based on a global advocacy campaign and investments on the ground for clean energy.

In its annual Human Development Report, the UN Development Progamme (UNDP) said the time is right for such a drive as the UN has designated 2012 as the international year of sustainable energy for all. Meanwhile, next year's Rio+20 Earth summit will provide an opportunity to define a global approach for universal access to energy – about 1.5 billion people worldwide, more than one in five, lack electricity.

On Tuesday, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, announced the creation of a high-level group to drum up support for energy access, energy efficiency and greater use of renewable energy. The group is to be co-chaired by Kandeh Yumkella, the chair of UN Energy and director general of the UN Industrial Development Organisation, and Charles Holliday, chairman of Bank of America.

This year's report, Sustainability and Equity, published on Wednesday, focuses on environmental degradation and its potential impact on human development. Environmental trends over recent decades show deterioration on several fronts, the report says, with adverse repercussions for human development (defined by the UN as "the expansion of people's freedoms and capabilities to lead lives that they value and have reason to value"), especially for the millions of people who depend directly on natural resources for their livelihoods.

The report looks at the national rankings of the UNDP's human development index, which combines measures of health, education and income. Norway, Australia and the Netherlands lead the world in the 2011 ranking, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger and Burundi the least developed. Cuba shows the greatest rise in the rankings and Kuwait the greatest fall.

The report puts particular emphasis on the need to empower women as a way of meeting the world's environmental challenges. "Transformation in gender roles and empowerment have enabled some countries and groups to improve sustainability and equity, advancing human development," the report says, citing countries such as Cuba, Iran and Mauritius, which have brought down fertility rates. Making the explicit link between lower birth rates and the protection of the environment, the report says: "Evidence suggests that if all women could exercise reproductive choice, population growth would slow enough to bring greenhouse gas emissions below current levels. Meeting unmet need for family planning by 2050 would lower the world's carbon emissions an estimated 17% below what they are today."

The UNDP said analysis covering 100 countries confirmed that greater political participation by women "is positively associated with better environmental outcomes, including better access to water, less land degradation and fewer deaths due to indoor and outdoor air pollution and dirty water".

As for the issue of how much it will cost to move to clean energy, the report cites estimates of total annual mitigation and adaptation costs by 2030 as ranging from $249bn to $1,371bn. While the amounts are large, the UNDP points out they are below current spending on defence, on recent banking bailouts and on "perverse" subsidies. Uzbekistan spends more than 10 times more on fossil fuel consumption subsidies than on health – 32% of GDP, compared with 2.5% – while Iran spends 20% of GDP on fossil fuel consumption subsidies, compared with less than 5% on education.

Subsidies aside, the report acknowledges the pressures of the global financial crisis, but points to "innovative" sources of financing such as a currency transaction tax – an idea it first mooted in 1994, which is gaining traction. The EU backs such a tax, although it is opposed by the UK which fears that such a move would undercut London's status as a financial centre. A tax of 0.005% would yield around $40bn a year worldwide, according to the report, while even a unilateral currency transaction tax limited to the euro could raise $4.2bn to $9.3bn in additional financing.

"Clearly, then, a currency transaction tax could, even under very conservative assumptions, dramatically scale up global public good expenditure," it said.

"Monetising part of the IMF's surplus could raise up to $75bn at little or no budgetary cost for contributing governments," says the report, adding: "Clean energy offers the potential to alleviate poverty, reduce health impacts from indoor air pollution and drive social and economic development, while mitigating energy's impact on the climate."